need some help please

[lee551]

the family box has a problem. my brothers were playing some game on the 'puter and then it froze. restarted it w/ the power button. the monitor however wouldn't show anything. it said cable not connected or whatever like when the computer is off.

checked all the cables and saw that they were properly connected. tried a diff monitor, didn't help. tried (2) diff video cards, didn't help. called up the local pc fixer and took it to him to at least diagnose the problem. he called back a day or two later and said that he got it working again by taking all the components out and putting them back in. well whatever, it fixed it. brought it home and it started working again normally.

someone shut down the pc and the next time someone went to turn it on, the same thing happened. wtf, so i thought of what the repairman did to fix it. i took out the gfx card and the 2 sticks of ram, put them back in, and it booted up again normally.

now today, it got left just playing a website slideshow, and then i think it went into standby mode. my mum noticed the speakers skipping really fast (she thought it was fan noise ) and after looking at it, it's frozen up. i shut 'er down with the power button and when i boot it up again, same damn problem. removed the gfx card & ram sticks, and booted it up again. it got to the windows loading screen, but froze again. took the computer out and blew some dust off the heatsink (i dunno, i'm just guessin here) with canned air. took it back in and booted it, this time it booted fine, but it stopped before the windows loading screen and just hung again.

now i have removed the ram and put it back in, took out the gfx card and put it back in, switched gfx cards, and nothing will work.

ANY ideas/suggestions? if not i'll just take it back to the pc dude and ask him to diagnose the problem a little bit better.

sys specs:
amd athlon xp processor
ecs k7sem mb
256mb no-name ram / 512mb crucial ram

[Virtualbody1234]

Try cleaning the contact points for the RAM and the video card.

If that doesn't work then disassemble everything looking for tiny hairline cracks. Clean every contact point and reapply thermal paste to heatsink(s). After that, check all the wires. Try bending them gently back and forth while the PC is on (great caution required here).

[lee551]

Try cleaning the contact points for the RAM and the video card.

If that doesn't work then disassemble everything looking for tiny hairline cracks. Clean every contact point and reapply thermal paste to heatsink(s). After that, check all the wires. Try bending them gently back and forth while the PC is on (great caution required here).

i lack thermal paste. probably shouldn't take the heatsink off w/out some of that to reapply huh?

[clocker]

Probably not.

Sounds to me like the motherboard is failing.

[lee551]

didn't think so.

clocker, i had also suspected that the mobo was going to shit.

the computer had also done this i guess while my parents were using it. they said it went to the 'no signal input, check cables...' screen twice while just surfing the internet. my dad said he just moved the mouse and it snapped out of it.

the guy that [fixed] it originally said that "it must have just locked up pretty good." i kinda agree with that cuz it seems the computer is just stuck. the red activity button stays solid whenever i turn it on, no blinks or anything, just solid.

would clearing the cmos or anything help (guessing again)?

[clocker]

Do you have a second (comparable) PC in which to test parts?
Preferably one that is not randomly screwing up?

If so, pull the RAM from the suspect machine and Memtest in the good PC.
Ditto with the vid card (not Memtest obviously...say looped Aquamark3 or something).
Slave in the HDD and run the manufacturer's diagnostics (available free on the net).
Now you're down to the CPU or the board and my bet would be the board.

[Seedler]

So you took everything out and put 'em back in 56 times?

Get a life

jk, but do check the mobo.

[lee551]

Do you have a second (comparable) PC in which to test parts?
Preferably one that is not randomly screwing up?

If so, pull the RAM from the suspect machine and Memtest in the good PC.
Ditto with the vid card (not Memtest obviously...say looped Aquamark3 or something).
Slave in the HDD and run the manufacturer's diagnostics (available free on the net).
Now you're down to the CPU or the board and my bet would be the board.

unfortuneately the only other working pc i have right now is mine, which uses DDR, and the broken box has SDRAM.

i think i would have eliminated the gfx card as the culprit by trying two different cards, not?

So you took everything out and put 'em back in 56 times?

Get a life

jk, but do check the mobo.

yeah, its such a strange problem, and i fixed it before by doing the same thing, so it's the only option i could try to get it werking. i do live in the middle of nowhere, so it's not like i had anything better... to... do.

[lee551]

ok, well this morning i talked to the guy on the phone. he said he cleared the cmos and it seemed to help. this morning i cleared the cmos (took the battery out for a bit too) and then went to hook it back up.

magically it booted up alright. i saw the regular startup screens and had to press F1 or Del for setup. pressed F1 and it seemed normal until it got to loading windows. it just hung at a black screen. restarted it, and then nothing comes up just like in the beginning.

guessin' the board is shot. time to start shopping.

[clocker]

Fortunately you have lots of spare time....right?

You can kill time by counting crows or watching paint dry.